Tackling Brain Rot in Your Team: Tips For Managers

Have you noticed your employees struggle to regulate emotions, tolerate distress, or endure boredom lately? Do they scroll through social media during working hours and have issues focusing on more complex tasks??

It seems like some of your employees are experiencing brain rot. Brain rot affects personal and professional life and is caused by excessive and everlasting consumption of low-grade online content.

*This article is the abridged, adapted version of the blog post originally published at the CAKE.com blog: https://cake.com/empowered-team/brain-rot-hinders-productivity-performance/?

What is ‘brain rot’ anyway?

Brain rot — Oxford Word of the Year 2024 — is “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging.”

Oxford experts noted that the term became a synonym for the impact of excessive exposure to low-quality online content, particularly on social media.?

Brain rot typically starts with? procrastination — when employees begin delaying their usual tasks, says Biljana Rakic, Vice President of Human Capital at CAKE.com. She explains how, over time, this leads to lower engagement and satisfaction:?

“Due to the shortened attention span, employees’ interest and excitement about work decreases. If they show excitement for a certain task, it’s short-term — we see employees crave assignments they can complete quickly. Moreover, they get disinterested fast and face difficulties finishing their tasks.”

Furthermore, brain rot negatively affects employees’ creativity for problem-solving, Rakic adds, which happens because “shortened attention span and lack of focus and motivation reduce workers’ creativity, eventually leading to decreased productivity, performance, and employee engagement.” ?

In addition, short attention spans, inability to focus on complex tasks, hindered decision-making abilities and increased stress can lead to burnout and worsen communication and team collaboration.?

How managers can tackle brain rot in their teams

Rakic shared some advice for managers who noticed the signs of brain rot among their team members.

Task switch

Exposure to new experiences benefits mental and cognitive health. Therefore, whenever you have the possibility, Rakic advises switching your employees’ tasks:?

“In the Talent Acquisition team, we tend to change types of positions for recruiters from time to time. For example, one month they work on the selection process for dev positions, and the next month for business or creative positions. In internal HR, we switch employees' assignments from learning and development activities to retention tasks and vice versa.”??

More frequent appraisals for smaller achievements

Don’t wait for big milestones to give kudos to your colleagues. Instead, Rakic proposes praising their efforts and smaller achievements:?

“Encourage employees when they are on the right track and praise their progress. Give them real-life validation, so they don’t need to delve into social media for that feeling.”?

Regular manager-employee check-ins

Rakic recommends engaging with your employees by asking them how they feel at work and what they consider important, and listening to their responses carefully:?

“Listen to your employees’ needs and try to adjust their tasks accordingly, as much as business circumstances allow. Through regular check-ins, give them feedback on their outputs and ask if their needs are being met. Remember, the manager is the one adjusting to workers to maintain or increase their motivation, engagement, and productivity.”

Encourage common breaks

Brain rot leads to procrastination. So, to meet deadlines or finish all their tasks, employees who procrastinate suddenly start working excessively, which increases stress, hampers wellbeing, and eventually leads to burnout. Therefore, Rakic advises managers to encourage regular breaks for their team members to prevent this scenario.??

Spending too much time consuming low-quality online content impairs crucial human traits, such as consciousness, the ability to maintain focus, critical thinking, and complex problem-solving skills. These competencies are important in business settings, and their lack, caused by brain rot, hinders overall performance, engagement, and employee wellbeing.?

Therefore, remind employees to use technology mindfully and schedule digital detoxes. Finally, encourage them to return to “real-life hobbies”, like regular workouts, walks in nature, reading, or painting, Rakic recommends.?

If you’d like to learn more about how social media affects traditional work culture, check out the viral workplace trends you need to know.